Tuesday, July 1, 2014

June 30, 2014 - God Can Change Us If We Are Willing!

Your email has not yet arrived but I will write my part of it, then respond to you if you get it in on time. If not, don't sweat it. Double email next week. (John told us last week that he would email a few days later this week because of going to the temple, so we missed writing him, but he sounds so good he'll be fine!)

Elder Ferrar and I are living in paradise. I remember Dad asking me how many discussions I taught in one week when we did phone calls. At the time my answer was about 5 or 6, I think. This week we got 9 member present lessons in, as well as several lessons on the street. It has been a really great week. On one day we had 5 lessons planned out and not enough time to eat, though some fell through.

The source of this success, I believe, is

1) The Lord blessing us, and especially helping Elder Ferrar have a great start to his mission.

2) A really great last couple weeks, which gave us the largest active teaching pool I've had on my mission (about 6 or 7).

3) A new goal by Elder Ferrar and I to schedule people at least 2 days in advance, thus avoiding those awkward moments when you try to find a fellowshipper with 2 hours left. While not the biggest or most important thing I've learned on my mission, I am very grateful that I have learned more about time management and planning. Chapter 8 of Preach my Gospel is one of the hardest chapters to master (though they're all super hard). It is also one of the most valuable.

I have been enjoying being able to help Elder Ferrar. It was a rough week for him, I think. A couple days of finding for hours in the humidity and sun, a couple days of back to back lessons that he can barely understand. But he's a pretty good buy, for a Brit. It is still a bit surreal being in charge of stuff and directing things. Sometimes when we do training, I feel like I'm just talking and I don't know what to teach. But being a trainer has also helped me realize I have learned a lot of stuff. I didn't know how to find, or talk to people, or speak Cantonese, or use scriptures, or plan, etc, when I started. For that matter I didn't know how to cook food. I have found that when we do sih faahns (demonstrations, practices, role plays) I have a lot of good critisism. It's cool.

Our investigator KK reached an awesome milestone today. She's been meeting with us twice a week since Ida was baptized, but she was pretty lazy before. She outright said that that was why she hadn't joined a church yet. She loves staying at home, sleeping in, found a job that doesn't require her to leave a one mile radius of her house. But she wanted to change and has a very humble spirit. We've slowly helped her start reading, and coming to church, but she was always late. Her baptismal date got pushed back a couple times to the 13th of July, and to make that she had to be on time this last Sunday. We met with her after English Class on Saturday, shared about Nephi building a boat, and boosted her faith. I'll admit, I was still scared. But I had faith, and during correlation meeting half an hour before church she walked past the room we were in. Great moment. The coolest thing was that Ida and some other friends invited her to go out to eat on Saturday night and she turned them down because she was determined to get to bed early. God can change us, if we're willing. She is.

I feel great these days, I pray for you guys every night. Please read and pray and have family home evening and go to the temple. There is so much out there for us to grab and enjoy if we'll just "be up and doing" as Moroni says.

I await your email. If not, it's okay. Elder Morrell

Nothing to do, nothing to do... Sometimes life gets a bit dull around here. I have noticed some things about me that have changed dramatically. One is that I used to sleep in a lot at home. You'll recall I never liked that aspect about myself. Obviously any even mildly obedient missionary cannot sleep in more than a couple minutes, but I would run into that a bit. It bugged me. I had already managed to kick the nap taking habit (naps make you more tired, so I try to never sleep aside from night time) and I really wanted to get to exactly obedient on the waking up side of things. SO I did. Now I wake up every morning at 6:55, fold up my blanket (because it's easier than making a bed) and get out of bed. As a result I feel happier, more obedient, and any time that I sit down for more than 5 minutes with nothing to do I begin to dose. Which I refuse to do.

I am excited for having that increased self control and better morning routine. President Hawks at the trainer meeting mentioned that some people think that routine is boring, but that there is power in a strong routine.

If you are still writing, relax, we're leaving. Write me an extra long letter for next time. Love you all!